Let's talk about Lupin/SHIP Lupin/Tonks

[Karen]

No: HPFGUIDX 146080

> Pippin:
>
> Let me ask, if I'm right and Lupin was  turned by Voldemort,
> forced to kill Sirius and cooperate with The Plan in order to keep
> this secret...isn't his behavior in HBP  just what you'd expect?
> Distant, stilted, non-committal, staring into the fire, and a sudden
> wild outburst of emotion when it all goes wrong *again* (from the
> pov of a reluctant DE who was expecting Draco to fail and
> Snape to die) and Dumbledore is killed?
>
>

Let's face it., Lupin's behaviour could be explained any number of 
ways. Myself,I took it as becoming depressed both over his Tonks 
situation and being separated from everyone at the Order and having to 
spend a lot of time as a spy. Sure he can do it, but Lupin doesn't 
strike me as spy  material. He DOES strike me as a fabulous teacher. 
Anyone in a high pressure situation, isolated and in a position that 
they do not like that is far removed from the "normal" life Lupin has 
been struggling for his whole life and spending tons of time with 
people who don't even (as it seems from the books) *try* for is bound 
to be depressing. Lupin's demeanor, loss of weight and continuing 
premature graying all point to depression to me. You see? It can mean 
anything if you spin it the right way.

In response to earlier posts about what Lupin thought about Tonks; from 
the bit of dialogue we got at the end, I got the impression that this 
had been addressed between the two of them many times ("I've told you a 
million times..) if Lupin didn't care for Tonks, I don't think that he 
would have been beyond saying "Tonks I really like you as a friend, but 
just not in that way". Instead, it sounds like the issues are just as 
he says, age, economic status (with little hope of that improving 
thanks to Umbridge) and the fact that he can turn into a raging animal 
that would attack anyone. There are several references in PoA of how 
much time he has spent shuddering over what *could* have happened when 
he was at Hogwarts, both when young and as a teacher. It happened off 
page, but there didn't seem to be much doubt from the scene we got what 
their relationship has been like. My guess is too that the difference 
between Tonks at the end of OoTP and HBP is that Sirius' sudden death 
was probably the kicker to Tonks to "declare herself" to Lupin.

kchuplis